Jason was vaguely aware of the sound of footsteps becoming louder, but he was too exhausted to care. It was mid-afternoon, judging by the direction of the sun's warmth on his skin. He must have looked pathetic to whoever was coming towards him. Raspy, ragged breathes irritated his parched throat. His lips were dried and cracked from lack of water, and the chains had chafed his skin raw. He felt much worse inside than he did outside, however. The hunger pangs were unbearable, his head pounded from dehydration and exposure to too much rain and sun, and it felt like his insides were boiling. Jason briefly wondered if this was what Infected felt like, and then heard the clatter of chains behind him. The sandy ground rose up to greet his face.
"Times up, kid. I'll get your welcoming committee." A gruff voice said from above the dark-haired boy. Jason lay on the ground, unresponsive. He didn't have the energy to do anything but stay still.
"Has it really been three days? That makes it what…five days now?" The teenager thought sluggishly, trying to remember how much time had passed. His thoughts were hazy, and it hurt to think. It felt like a lifetime ago that he had first been chained to that post by Izzy.
Jason was enveloped in silence for a while, the light breeze ruffling his greasy hair. He became gradually more aware of his surroundings from his new vantage point. His vision became slightly more focused, but it was still blurry. Men emerged from the alley into the clearing, about eight in all. Jason noticed one of them carried a long, leather whip. It made his fiery blood run cold, looking at the brutal thing. A hand grasped the thick handle at one end, and the other was thin, splitting in two. The man cracked the whip, producing a sharp snap. If Jason could whimper in fear, he would have. Instead he flinched at the sound.
The eight men arranged themselves in a circle, with eager looks on their faces. Flogging was apparently an entertaining spectacle for these people. The dark-haired boy felt someone grab his raw wrists, but then the person dropped them as a voice rang out from the alleyway.
"Aww, you guys are having a party and you didn't invite me? For shame…I like to see fresh meat tenderized!" A girl's voice complained sarcastically, earning a few chuckles from the men. Jason couldn't see who it was since he was facing the opposite way, but the voice sounded familiar. He thought it was Isabelle, but the girl's voice sounded a bit lower. Still, he vaguely recognized the tone.
"There ain't nothing to see here for girls, Riley. We wouldn't want to scar your pretty eyes, now." Dale warned in a serious tone. Jason heard Riley scoff.
"Riley…? I know that name…" The boy thought, trying to match the name to a face. He felt like the memory was right there, just under the murky surface that was his uncooperative thought process. He couldn't grasp it.
"Maybe you might know him? He's from Denver, too. The kid's a Cobra, do you recognize him?" An unknown man's voice reached Jason's ears.
"I don't know any fucking Cobras, Zack. Nobody did, the goddamn military kept them segregated." Riley snapped. The dark-haired boy heard footsteps coming closer, and felt fingers wrap around his left forearm, gently pulling it away from him. He felt the girl lightly trace his tattoo.
"Squad No. 25…Cobras? No fucking way…" The girl muttered, turning Jason over so he was lying on his back. Her eyes widened in shock. "No fucking way! Jason!? How the hell…oh my God, I can't believe this." Riley sat back, releasing Jason's arm. She held her head in her hands, letting out a long breath.
Mentally drained as he was, Jason was also surprised. He finally remembered who this girl was. They had been in the same squadron together, they were best friends, and the last time he had seen her was…Jason couldn't recall. He merely blinked at her, trying to keep his vision focused on her face. Riley's shoulder-length hair was blonde. He remembered her eyes were blue, and they always looked cold and critical. Her sarcastic attitude hadn't changed at all.
Jason felt a hand cup his face, and it guided his head so he was looking directly into Riley's eyes. "I haven't seen you since your 16th birthday a year and a half ago…you must be 17 now, huh?" She estimated, and lifted his back up so that he sat against the post. Riley removed her canteen from her belt and Jason gratefully drank every last drop of water from it. The boy kept forgetting how long he had really been in Jackson County, and had also stopped counting since there was no point. The blonde eyed the scar on his neck.
Riley clipped the canteen back on her belt. "You were always the better shot, weren't you? Never stopped bragging about it…but now you can't talk. Ironic, isn't it?" There was a mixture of sadness and satisfaction in her voice. Jason suddenly fell sideways as pain exploded from his jaw. "I wanted to be a Cobra, but they picked you instead, just like for everything else!" The girl shouted, retracting her fist. Riley pulled Jason back up again before he could recover. She slugged him across the face again, sending him to the ground. "You left me behind when Denver went down, and you have the balls to show your face to me again? You fucking piece of shit!" For every word in the last phrase, Jason was kicked hard in the stomach by the enraged girl. Now he also remembered her explosive temper.
Jason curled up into a ball, clutching his stomach. Riley huffed and turned to Dale, who held the whip. "Do with him what you will. Bring him to me after; I'm not done with him yet." With that she spun on her heel and marched out of the clearing. The dark-haired boy managed a smirk as a man bound his wrists to the post with the chains. Riley hadn't changed a bit.
His bittersweet moment with his old friend was quickly forgotten as Jason heard the crack of the whip. A millisecond later, white-hot pain seared his weakened body. He couldn't scream in agony, and the men around him jeered and laughed as Dale opened a second gash on the boy's back. Jason felt hot blood trickling down his sides, and the part that made him most afraid was that he couldn't see when the next slash was coming. Every time he heard the whip crack he flinched, a new wave of fear washing over his body. Jason's head was tucked under his arm and he was on his knees. The boy opened his mouth in another silent scream as a third gash sliced opened on his back. He writhed in pain and wanted more than anything for it to end, but he knew he had another five to go. Jason gritted his teeth as the fourth and fifth slashes tore across his already wounded back, and soundlessly screamed when the sixth one struck his lower back. The last two made his knees give out, and his vision faded from darkness to light as someone undid the chains.
The puddle of blood underneath Jason grew steadily larger, and then he felt someone drag him away from the stockade. He didn't stay awake long enough to see where he was going, and fell unconscious from his own agony.
When the dark-haired boy woke up again, he was lying on his front on one of the infirmary beds. His back throbbed in pain, matching the rhythm of his heart. His insides didn't feel hot anymore, and neither did his head pound. When Jason's vision cleared, he saw two girls sitting on the bed next to him, playing cards. A few candles were lit around the room; some were on the floor, others were on nightstands, and a small fire was burning from wooden debris in the middle of the living room. The tiny flames gave the room a soft glow, and whatever the light couldn't reach was cloaked in shadows.
Jason recognized the two girls as Izzy and Riley, who were chatting quietly amongst themselves. They were unaware that their patient had woken up, for the moment. In the glow of the firelight, the boy was able to look properly at his former comrade in arms. Her hair wasn't in a tight, regulation bun anymore. It flowed freely around her face, tucked behind her ears. The flames made it appear a rich shade of gold. Her blue eyes were kind and gentle in contrast to cold and harsh. Riley appeared like a normal teenager, not the tough as nails, commanding girl he once knew in the military. Jason thought he saw a light blush on her cheeks as he heard Izzy mention his name in a question.
The dark-haired boy tried to prop himself up onto his elbow, but let out a light gasp as his back erupted into more intense pain. Riley and Izzy glanced up from their card game. Jason immediately resumed his previous position as the pair came over.
"Shit, I thought you were never going to wake up. You were out for hours. Your fever broke a couple of hours ago, so you should be fine." Riley commented as she checked the bandages on her friend's back. Izzy stood off to the side, ready with a bowl of water. She watched the girl fuss over the boy, and briefly wondered what had really happened between them back in Denver.
As Riley changed the bandages on Jason's back, she motioned over to the black-haired girl who started dabbing the boy's wounds. Jason hissed as the liquid stung, earning a condescending huff from the blonde.
"Big baby…If you tense up it'll be worse. Relax, will you?" Riley chided, and the dark-haired boy obliged as best as he could. "Dale really did a number on you, didn't he? Luckily the gashes aren't too deep, but they'll leave scars. They hurt like a bitch though, huh?" She chuckled, throwing the soiled gauze into the small bonfire. Jason tried to remain expressionless, but his answer was obvious due to his frequent winces.
Once his bandages were replaced, Riley pulled up a chair next to Jason. The usually bold, chatty Isabelle didn't say a word in the presence of the older girl, instead busying herself with tending the fire while the pair talked. Even though she was fifteen, she still felt like a small child compared to Riley, who was Jason's age. She held deep respect for the blonde, but still eavesdropped on their conversation from her place at the fire. It wasn't difficult as Riley wasn't exactly trying to be quiet.
"About earlier today…God, I don't even know where to begin. When I recognized you, I freaked out. I thought you were dead, and I bet you thought I was, too. What I said was true, though. I was jealous they made you a Cobra, and not me. I thought something like that had happened when you didn't come to work after your birthday, or that you had just gotten drunk and beaten to death. You tend to attract trouble, don't you?" Riley smirked, ruffling Jason's hair.
The corner of Jason's mouth twitched upwards. He remembered that almost every time they had gone on a mission outside of the Quarantine Zone, it was like the Infected knew where to find him and came after him. They had some close calls with getting bitten, but it never happened. He always had Riley's back, and she had his. They trusted their lives to each other during missions, and were almost inseparable. Jason didn't have to think about all the times people tried to jump him on his way to and from work, and during patrols inside the QZ, to know that he was a magnet for danger. People hated the military, no matter how old the soldiers were.
"I heard some guys talking about the settlement you came from. Two days away, holy shit. We're really stretching it to get our numbers up. Not that you helped anything, of course. It's just like you to make a dramatic escape like that instead of picking your way out step by step. I guess that's your biggest flaw, huh? You always want to make a show, to impress people. It makes you a real idiot sometimes, Jay." The blonde sighed in mock exasperation, "It was a wonder how you survived without me when you got out. Ugh, it's a shame you can't talk…we have a lot to catch up on." Her sarcasm faded away to reveal a glimpse of longing behind her guarded eyes. Longing for what, Jason had no idea.
The dark-haired boy glanced around, searching his surroundings for something to write on. He spotted a sheet of crumpled paper and a pen on the nightstand beside him, and inclined his head towards it. It took Riley a few seconds to discern what he was getting at, and then threw a glance at the nightstand. She handed him the paper and pen, along with a flat, relatively intact piece of wood to write on.
Jason scribbled something on the sheet, and spun it around so she could see it. "How did you get here?" Riley read, squinting to read the boy's scrawl in the dim light of the candles. The blonde thought about that question for a moment. "I escaped through the sewer system with a few from our squad and number 14, as well. That was a couple of weeks after you'd disappeared. We walked and some people gave us rides. It took us about two months to get here, and by then it was only me, Isabelle, Ian, and Jerry. Izzy was from Squad No. 14, so I guess you didn't know her. You killed Ian and Jerry, so it's just me and Izzy now. I can't believe you stayed in that shithole…when did you actually leave?" She asked, passing the paper back to him.
The dark-haired boy wrote down, "Six months after birthday, spent one year in settlement." He handed the paper to Riley, who gave a low whistle. "You really stuck it out…Ran out of pot, did they?" She snickered, earning an eye roll from her friend. "Are your parents still alive?" The blonde queried warily, gauging Jason's expression. He nodded, and she let out a relieved sigh. "Good, glad to hear it. You don't how fucking lucky you are to have both parents until you've lost them. You still picking off bandits and Infected with a sniper rifle over there?"
Jason shook his head, and scribbled on his paper, "I'm a horse guy now." He passed the sheet to Riley, and she snorted, "Seriously? Horses? No wonder you were able to run down so many men…Remember how we used to sit up in the sniper's nest all day, up on one of the towers on the wall? Remember the contests we would have to see how many Infected we could kill in one minute? I think my record was ten, but yours was 20, or something. You used to call me Rye Bread because I was a slow runner and you thought I was always going to be food for the Infected. I called you Blue Jay because you held your breath with that sniper rifle for so long, your face turned blue. I miss those days…minus the rampant starvation, drought, riots, and Firefly bombings, it wasn't too bad. We had good times…and then you had to go and fucking disappear, leaving me to wonder if you were even alive…" She said the last sentence quietly, and the dark-haired boy reached a hand out to squeeze hers reassuringly.
Riley glanced down at their hands, and quickly pulled hers away. She glanced over at Izzy, and Jason saw the slight blush reappear on the blonde's cheeks. Riley composed herself in the blink of an eye, but Jason didn't miss the hitch in her breath at his touch. "Hey, do you remember when we were fifteen, how we used to mess with the higher-up's food? My favourite was the shredded habanero peppers in Major Rowland's soup. His mouth got burned so much, he couldn't talk for two whole days! It was a golden age for all of us." A laugh bubbled up at the memory, and Jason snickered quietly while Riley laughed outright. When she had calmed down, she was still giggling, "God, they hated us so much back then. They couldn't discharge us because we were under contracts, but they couldn't wait for us to turn 18 and get out!"
The dark-haired boy had to stop laughing because his cuts were starting to hurt again. He took the piece of paper and scrawled, "Remember stargazing?" Riley read the question and nodded, "Yeah, we used to sleep on the roof of your apartment building in the summer, because we stayed up so long watching the stars. I knew all of the constellations, and you had that book on the stories behind each one. Then the night before you disappeared, it was my birthday. You know we had our birthdays right after each other, right? You asked me what I wanted, and I said…Shit, it sounds so stupid now." The girl scoffed, leaning back in her chair. Jason furrowed his brow, wondering why she had stopped all of a sudden. It didn't seem stupid to him.
Jason wrote down what his friend was too embarrassed to say, probably because Isabelle was in the room. "You said to me, and I quote, 'I want you to promise me that we won't leave each other. The best birthday present I can get is one I already have.' End quote." He shoved the paper towards Riley, who picked it up and read it.
"That was the night you kissed me…and then you broke the fucking promise two days later. Do you even know what you put me through? Do you know how I suffered, not knowing where you were or what happened to you? Your parents couldn't say anything, they were sworn to secrecy! The Commanders didn't say shit, and nobody knew! I tried scouring the city, but-" Riley's rant got cut off as Jason nimbly sat up despite his injuries, and kissed her. The girl was too shocked to pull away, and the dark-haired boy broke away after a few seconds. He gingerly sat himself back down, smirking. Didn't that always work to shut girls up? It had worked for Ellie and her crying…
Riley remained speechless for a few moments, trying to collect her thoughts. She slapped him forcefully across the face, making him grit his teeth in pain. The blonde stood up and said to Izzy, "Put the fire out and blow the candles out, too. I think we've stayed long enough. Let's get some shut-eye, okay?" The raven-haired girl nodded and stomped the fire out. She gathered up the cards, blew out half the candles, and let Riley do the other half. Riley saved the last one by Jason's nightstand so she could talk to him.
"I'm still mad at you, Blue Jay." The blonde spat unconvincingly, trying to look furious with him. Jason smirked again and waved her off. Riley blew the candle out and made her way outside using the light of the moon. The boy felt a sense of guilt come over him as soon as she left. He had been reunited with his best friend, whom he knew had feelings for him for quite some time, and then there was Ellie. Jason sighed, lying down and closing his eyes. What was a boy to do?
